How France Translate Movie Titles From English To English is a very fun read

Here’s a very funny thread from a Paris based designer and writer @juanbus who highlighted how fond the French are of poorly translating English film titles into… English.

And it’s very revealing too. See if you can spot the trend!

1.

For some *ridiculous* reason, the French love to translate film titles from English to… English

Here’s a thread with my absolute favorites starting with “the hangover”

… I mean VERY BAD TRIP pic.twitter.com/YoPzIb0pq1

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

2.

“The Other Boys” should work for a French audience, right?

France: no. VERY BAD COPS pic.twitter.com/TMMn36J2eJ

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

3.

“Not Another Teen Movie” is pretty plain English, isn’t it?

France: no. SEX ACADEMY pic.twitter.com/RjueQCAQvz

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

4.

“step up 2” would be easy for French people to understand, right?

France: no. SEXY DANCE 2 pic.twitter.com/9xk3mcZF5G

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

5.

“eurotrip” should work in france, right? they are European!

France: no. sex trip pic.twitter.com/3LNPsvGSVM

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

6.

“No Strings Attached” could be a nice, subtle title for this romantic comedy?

France: no. SEX FRIENDS pic.twitter.com/65aDGj7nEw

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

7.

“What is your number?” goes well with this cute romcom, right?

France: no. SEX LIST pic.twitter.com/DmSJnOeXrc

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

8th.

“Cocaine Bear” can’t possibly be misunderstood by a French audience, right?

France: no. CRAZY BEAR pic.twitter.com/rUIrDm1PiE

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

9.

that’s just amazing

A Short History of Decay looks like a slow, moody film… how could we make it work for a French audience?

France: SEXY THERAPY pic.twitter.com/8DFwVli3Hq

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

10

“Tangled” is a mysterious thriller! How do we keep the same atmosphere in French?

France: SEX PROBLEMS pic.twitter.com/XHUlj9kUGH

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

11.

Are you beginning to see a pattern? Here’s the full list of films where they decided the French title needed more… you know

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

Here are just a few of the many things people said in response.

My personal favorite: pic.twitter.com/h9lJ76u2pI

— Anna (@gnocci_fc) March 9, 2023

This one is… well. pic.twitter.com/Qr3DODzVT9

— Katsuhono (@Katsuhono) March 8, 2023

My favorite is the Swedish film “Force Majeure” from anywhere in the world; in France “snow therapy” 🤷🏻‍♀️ For once the original sum was in French

— Lucie Larboulette (@L_Larboulette) March 8, 2023

Here is one from Denmark pic.twitter.com/bP8TdipQiU

— Rasmus Anker (@anker2000) March 8, 2023

French born and raised here. Original titles are usually meaningless to the average French person. “Hangover”, for example, means nothing to a Frenchman, even with a basic knowledge of English. However, “very bad trip” is clear because it uses simple words that everyone knows

— iDownloadBlog (@iDownloadBlog) March 8, 2023

makes total sense! some are still funny though 🙂

— juan (@juanbuis) March 8, 2023

And you can find @juanbus on Twitter here!

source Twitter @juanbuis